Brescia Celebrates Class of 2015 and Installs Second Chancellor

News Release
June 11, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, ON – On June 14th, over 150 graduands along with their families and friends will gather at St. Peter’s Basilica for Brescia’s 93rd annual Baccalaureate and Magisterial Exercises. This significant occasion not only celebrates the graduation of Brescia’s Class of 2015, but also marks the installation of Brescia’s second Chancellor, the Honourable Madam Justice Eileen Gillese of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Justice Gillese, one of Canada’s most distinguished female leaders, will be installed by the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Elizabeth Hewitt. Justice Gillese has been a trailblazer throughout her career. She earned a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England the first year the Scholarship was open to women. She was the first, and to date the only female Dean of the Faculty of Law at Western University. Justice Gillese has received numerous prestigious awards, including being honoured as one of Canada’s Top 100 Women, as a Globe and Mail Nation Builder, and as a Leading Educator of the World. Justice Gillese is a former Chair of the Pension Commission of Ontario and the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. She was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 1999 and to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2002.

Brescia’s Baccalaureate service is a long-standing tradition, which provides Brescia students and their families, along with faculty and staff, a chance to celebrate the success of its graduands before they convocate the next day. The day’s program will include a formal procession into the cathedral, the presentation of an alumnae ring to each graduand, and addresses from the Valedictorian, Meghan Vollebregt and Erin Rankin Nash, the inaugural Dr. Joan Francolini Distinguished Speaker.

The graduands will continue their celebration on June 15th, when they gather on campus for lunch with family and friends, followed by the important procession to convocation, led by bagpiper Eileen Robertson, which is expected to begin at 1:45p.m. The graduands will process down the Brescia hill to Alumni Hall, where they will have their degrees officially conferred upon them.

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For more information please contact Caitlin Core, Communications, Marketing & External Relations Officer at 519-432-8353, ext. 28280 or at ccore@uwo.ca. Brescia University College, Canada’s only women’s university, is affiliated with Western University. The 1,275 women registered as either full- or part-time students at Brescia study a wide variety of subjects in Arts, Social Sciences, and Foods & Nutrition in an empowering, compassionate, student-centred, and invigorating environment. Degrees are granted by Western. The Catholic College welcomes students from all backgrounds and values diversity. For more current and archived news, a listing of faculty experts, and photos please visit our Media Centre at http://media.bresciauc.ca/.